Monday

The Hurricanes returned to the practice field Monday without a reserve offensive lineman.

Redshirt junior George Brown Jr. was held out of Monday’s practice after suffering a knee injury during Saturday’s scrimmage. The severity of the knee issue is still being determined.

“I’m still waiting from [head athletic trainer] Vinny [Scavo] to tell me the final deal, but he did not practice today,” coach Mark Richt said of Brown in a press conference during UM media day Monday. “Hurt his knee. I don’t even know which knee it was, to be honest with you. But, we’re just waiting on results and I would say, pretty soon, we’ll be able to say what’s going on with him.”

Brown, who has been practicing as the second-string left tackle, played in three games as a reserve and also spent time as a member of the scout team last season. He sat out the 2016 season after transferring to Miami from LSU.

Freshman DJ Scaife filled in for Brown as the second-team left tackle in Monday’s practice. Scaife, a former four-star prospect out of Miami-Southridge, has received a lot of positive feedback since the start of camp.

Richt said following Saturday’s scrimmage, “Right this second, I would say Scaife is probably the sixth guy at a few positions probably.” One of those positions is left tackle, apparently.

Scaife’s move to left tackle prompted additional moves on the second-string offensive line, with Tennessee transfer Venzell Boulware playing at left guard and Cleveland Reed playing at right guard.

Depth chart watch: Coaches said last week the first changes to Miami’s depth chart would come after the first scrimmage.

Well, that first scrimmage was Saturday. So after Sunday’s off day, the Hurricanes took the practice field Monday and there were changes.

The biggest? Freshman tight end Brevin Jordan was working with starting quarterback Malik Rosier in drills Monday morning, which means he was practicing as the first-string tight end.

The expectation has been the two freshman tight ends, Jordan and Will Mallory, would pass Brian Polendey on the depth chart. And that process has already started, as Jordan and Mallory will be asked to make an immediate impact with junior tight end Michael Irvin II out for the next four months due to a knee injury.

The running back depth chart also looked a bit different during the media viewing portion of Monday’s practice.

Travis Homer is still the starter at this spot, with DeeJay Dallas practicing as his backup. But it looks like freshman Lorenzo Lingard dropped a few spots.

Trayone Gray, a redshirt senior who had been practicing as the starting fullback, worked as the third-team running back Monday. Robert Burns went through drills as the fourth-team running back, and Lingard rotated with fellow freshman Cam’Ron Davis at No. 5.

With Gray working with the running backs, freshman Realus George stepped in as the starting fullback during Monday’s practice.

“I’ll tell you the guy that’s probably helped himself more than anybody this camp is Trayone Gray as a fullback and he got some tailback reps, too,” Richt said. “So, he’s not done playing tailback here for us.”

IPF nearing completion: The lightning alarm went off and interrupted Monday morning’s practice.

But soon, the Hurricanes won’t have to worry about that. The new Carol Soffer Football Indoor Practice Facility is expected to be ready for the football team to use later this week, according to UM athletic director Blake James.

“We received the temporary certificate of occupancy last week,” James said Monday. “We’re just finishing up the turf. I believe that will be done tomorrow or Wednesday, so we’ll be in there at some point this week. Obviously, we’re excited about that. It’s a huge win for our program to have that facility in place. Just want to thank the Soffer family and everyone else that was involved in just making it happen in such a short time span.”

The 83,000-square-foot facility will allow the team to seek shelter from storms and even the sun, while still holding a normal practice. Richt has said, while the Hurricanes will still try to practice outside as much as possible, the building will be used to help both bodies and natural grass fields stay fresh.

The facility will feature two fields, one 80 yards long and the other 40 yards. It will also have 56 feet of vertical clearance for kicking and punting, and garage-style doors that will allow for seamless transition from the grass fields to indoor turf fields when inclement weather arrives.